Adam Wainwright could only give the St. Louis Cardinals two innings last night, giving up nine runs on eight hits in the worst start of his career. The Cincinnati Reds rocked Wainwright for six runs in the first inning and three in the second before he was pulled.

Jay Bruce‘s three-run bomb in the top of the second sealed Wainwright’s night as the Reds would go on to a 10-0 shutout victory. Cincinnati starter Homer Bailey tossed 7.1 solid innings for the Reds, earning his ninth victory of 2013.

Wainwright has been a leader for the Cardinals, losing only two of his last 10 starts, but the Cardinals should be worried if he can’t recover from this debacle in his next start. St. Louis will need solid innings out of Wainwright if they want to go deep in the postseason, or even make the postseason. Currently, the Cardinals hold just a one-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates and a four-game lead over the Reds for control of the NL Central, so the team can’t afford their to have their starters do what Wainwright did last night.

The good news for St. Louis is that this doesn’t seem to be part of a bad trend. The team is 8-2 in their last 10 games where both the Pirates and Reds are 5-5. If they can keep up the pace and pad their lead over the next couple of weeks, they can easily put this game behind them and focus on October.

Matt Lanka is a Mariners writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattlanka, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.